Maia most recently took on Mark Munoz at UFC 131 and came up short on scorecards when Munoz’s wrestling proved difficult to deal with when the two grapplers inevitably hit the mat. The loss snapped a two-fight win streak in which he bested Mario Miranda and Kendall Grove.

Santiago, meanwhile, wants to erase the bad taste left from his octagon debut, which came after a highly successful stint overseas. The middleweight took on Brian Stann at UFC 130 and was soundly outstruck en route to a second-round TKO loss. The setback took the steam out of a 11-1 streak he amassed that included winning the Sengoku middleweight title after a 1-2 stint in the UFC a half-decade ago.

Santiago was released by the ailing Japanese promotion earlier this year and shortly afterward signed onto the UFC.

Pettis takes his second crack at a first UFC win after being outwrestled
by Clay Guida at June’s The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale. The loss was
just the second of Pettis’ career and ended a four-fight win streak for
“Showtime.”

Pettis, of course, gained prominence with his famed “Showtime” kick off
the side of the cage and into Ben Henderson’s face at the WEC’s final
event back in December. Pettis claimed the WEC lightweight title with
the win and was scheduled to meet the winner of January’s UFC 125
meeting between UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and top contender
Gray Maynard. However, that fight ended in a draw, and the two
lightweights are squaring off again at UFC 136.

Meanwhile, Stephens is currently enjoying the best octagon run of his career with four wins in his past five UFC outings.

Stephens most recently fought at The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale, where
he handled an incredibly durable Danny Downes en route to a
unanimous-decision win. Stephens also holds wins over Marcus Davis, Sam
Stout and Justin Buchholz during his current run. The lone loss came in a
UFC 119 split-decision defeat to Melvin Guillard.

The UFC first offered a pay-per-view teaser broadcast for UFC 103 in
2009, when the UFC went head-to-head with a boxing pay-per-view
broadcast featuring Floyd Mayweather vs. Juan Manuel Marquez. The Spike
TV specials proved effective enough at generating last-minute
pay-per-view buys that officials from the UFC and the organization’s
longtime cable partner decided to make them a regular offering.

A total of 26 fighters got their chance to shine on Saturday as part of UFC 190 at Rio de Janeiro’s HSBC Arena. Now that UFC 190 is in the books, it’s time to commence MMAjunkie’s “Three Stars” ceremony.

The man known for cranking submissions to the point of injury added eye-gouging to his repertoire. But is the controversy of Rousimar Palhares too essential to his bizarre, awful appeal for his employers to take any meaningful action against him?